Market-leading internet retailer Amazon is restructuring its European legal department, resulting in the promotion of UK legal director Michael Miller to the position of European legal director. He will be based at Amazon’s new European headquarters in Luxembourg.
Miller’s move has created a vacancy for the post of UK legal director, one of the most prestigious legal jobs in the UK e-commerce sector.
In December, Amazon announced that it was creating a European central management function to increase productivity and efficiency across its three Euro-pean businesses, and Miller has snared the top legal job.
Miller has four lawyers reporting to him from the UK, four from Amazon’s German operation and two in France. He is also looking for a new legal head in Paris.
Amazon has legal panels in each of the three jurisdictions. In the UK, CMS Cameron McKenna, Olswang and Osborne Clarke are the company’s key advisers, with Herbert Smith advising on competition issues. Miller said the only change likely to that arrangement is that he may require a firm that can advise him on pan-European issues.
